Fabrication Guides
14 long-form guides on gate sizing, materials, joinery, and the Australian Standards that govern compliant work. Each guide pulls data from a working CAD60 catalogue and references the relevant AS/NZS standards directly.
- Guides
- 14
- Total words
- 34,523
- Last issued
All guides
- SHT 01
How to Make a Patterned Battened Gate
A simple guide to CAD60's pattern designer. Pick your batten types, set counts and gaps, and choose how the pattern fits your gate, step by step.
- SHT 02
How to Choose Louvre Blades, Angle and Overlap
Pick a louvre blade, angle and overlap for a gate, fence or screen: privacy against airflow, blade shapes, setting out by pitch or count, and how blades are fixed.
- SHT 03
Designing a Timber Picket Fence
Picket head styles, rail-and-picket vs framed construction, flat vs scalloped tops, treated pine vs hardwood, and how to size a picket fence, panel, run, or gate.
- SHT 04
What to Include on a Gate Fabrication Drawing
The eight things every gate shop drawing needs: title block, overall and clear-opening dimensions, frame profiles, infill spacing, hardware, finish callout, and a cut list. Worked example.
- SHT 05
How to Quote a Sliding Gate
A worked sliding-gate quote, line by line: aluminium and tube, hardware, motor, finish, labour hours, and margin. The numbers a fabricator marks up, with a full 4 m example.
- SHT 06
Cantilever vs Tracked Sliding Gate
When to run a cantilever gate and when a ground-tracked one wins. Span limits, counterbalance, slope, debris, cost, and a side-by-side table to pick fast.
- SHT 07
Pool Gate Compliance: What AS 1926.1 Requires
The AS 1926.1 rules a pool gate must meet: self-closing, self-latching, latch height, non-climbable zone, and the 100 mm gap. A buildable checklist for fabricators.
- SHT 08
When to Use a Telescopic Gate
A telescopic (bi-parting) gate splits the leaf so it needs half the run-back of a single slide. When that trade-off is worth it, where it isn't, and how to size the panels.
- SHT 09
How to Make Fabrication Drawings Without CAD
You don't need AutoCAD or SolidWorks to draw a gate. Type the dimensions, get a fully dimensioned shop drawing and cut list. Here is the whole workflow, free, in minutes.
- SHT 10
How to Make a Shop Drawing for a Sliding Gate
Measure the opening, pick a style, type the numbers, fill the title block, download the PDF. A step-by-step sliding-gate shop drawing with a live worked example.
- SHT 11
How to Measure Up Sliding Gates on Raked Ground
How to measure up a sliding gate on sloping ground. Flat, single rake, and double rake explained simply, with the datum-line method and drag-to-learn diagrams.
- SHT 12
Which Type of Gate to Choose
A practical decision guide covering pedestrian, swing, sliding, cantilever, telescopic, and bi-fold gates. Width, site, use, compliance, and cost factors.
- SHT 13
Standard Pedestrian Gate Sizes in Australia
Standard widths, heights, hardware, and full worked specs for residential, commercial, and pool-compliant pedestrian gates in Australia. AS1428.1 and AS1926.1 references.
- SHT 14
RHS vs SHS for Steel Gate Frames
Choosing between RHS and SHS for stiles, rails, and posts. Section properties, worked bending-moment example, stiffeners, welding, HDG, and material cost.